Mixed Blood Theatre presents play about autism at MSUM
Mixed Blood Theatre presents “Theory of Mind,” a new play about a young man with autism, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5 at Minnesota State University Moorhead’s Weld Hall Glasrud Auditorium. It’s free and open to the public.
“Theory of Mind” is a sensitive yet unsentimental portrait of Bill, a college-bound 17-year-old with Asperger’s Syndrome. He is equipped with scholastic brilliance, but low emotional intelligence; keen self awareness, but an inability to read social cues; and a charming directness. He is uncertain about relationships, anxious about dating, and prone to taking everything he hears literally. His outing with a girl from his school becomes a memorable, insightful look at the tugs, shifts and about-faces found on the autism spectrum.
The play is written by Ken LaZebnik, a veteran Mixed Blood company member whose other writing credits include “Touched by an Angel” and the Mixed Blood-produced plays “Calvinisms,” “League of Nations” and “Vestibular Sense.” Staged by Mixed Blood Artistic Director Jack Reuler, the production features Skyler Nowinski and Taj Ruler.
The show is one of six culturally specific productions toured annually by Mixed Blood, a Minneapolis-based multicultural theatre company founded in 1976. The others include the Chicano cultural history “Minnecanos”; the Martin Luther King biography “Dr. King’s Dream”; “Daughters of Africa,” a music-driven history of African American women; and “Hijab Tube,” a look at elements of Islam in America. “African America,” about at the modern African diaspora, debuts in January.
The performance is sponsored by MSUM Disability Services, Umoja Student Association, MSUM Student Senate, MSUM Multicultural Affairs, and MSUM Women’s Center.